1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a camera having an automatic film winding mechanism which automatically winds a roll film, and more precisely, it relates to a camera for receiving a roll film which can be advantageously applied to a medium-sized camera using a Brownie film or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
A 135 roll film which has been most widely used is stored in a cartridge. Upon photographing, the film is loaded in a film compartment of a camera and is wound around a spool provided in a spool compartment. Upon completion of the photographing operation, the film is rewound in the cartridge and is removed from the camera. A Brownie film used in a medium-sized camera is wound around a film spool. Upon photographing, the film is wound onto another spool provided in the camera. When the Brownie film is loaded in the camera, the spool of the film is connected to a spool rotating shaft provided in the film compartment of the camera, and thereafter, the leading end of the film is wound around a film winding spool which is provided in a film winding compartment of the camera and which is connected to the spool rotating shaft, so that the photographing operation can be carried out while rotating the film winding spool by a drive source, such as a motor to wind the film. When the photographing operation for the last frame of the film is completed, the film is wound further in the same direction until the film is entirely wound on the film winding spool. Thereafter, the film is taken out together with the film winding spool from the camera. Therefore, the film spool on which the film has been wound is vacant, so that the film spool can be used as a film winding spool for a subsequent photographing operation.
In a camera using a Brownie film, in order to load a new film in the camera after an old film whose frames have been all exposed is removed from the camera, the spool remaining in the camera is moved from the film loading compartment to the film winding compartment, so that the new film can be loaded in the vacant film loading compartment. Therefore, the movement of the film spool must be carried out for each film replacement, thus resulting in a troublesome film replacement operation. In particular, each movement of the spool obstructs a fast film replacement, thus leading to missing a shutter chance.